China’s new theme park exhibits Titanic bad taste

Wednesday 15 January 2014 12:29 BST

Earlier this week China unveiled plans for a Titanic theme park. The attraction, in the central Chinese province of Sichuan, is going all out on special effects to mimic the 1912 disaster which killed more than 1,500 people. “When the ship hits the iceberg, it will shake, it will tumble,” promised one of the bosses. “We will let people experience water coming in by using sound and light effects …”

Actor Bernard Hill, who played the ship’s captain in the 1997 film, was flown to China this weekend to launch the campaign, and insisted that it will “not belittle the disaster”.

Author Andrew Wilson, however, whose book Shadow of the Titanic follows the survivors, is less certain. “Over the years we’ve had plays, films, musicals, memorial cruises, exhibitions. I suppose some people might think the next logical step is a theme park,” he says.

“For me, there is a question mark over how appropriate this is: for instance, I can’t imagine a theme park devoted to the 9/11 disaster, even in 100 years’ time.”